Cancer
Being Diagnosed: My Stage 4 Journey
Remember the spring of 2020? When absolutely nothing major was going on in the world? While everyone else was dealing with the pandemic that shut everything down worldwide, just after my 38th birthday, I also was given the news that I had stage 4 metastatic melanoma. To make it more fun, I happened to be 24 weeks pregnant with my fourth child.
Read More...Heartbeats of Chemo
As I pulled into the parking lot in March 2020, I noticed how empty the clinic was. Only a few cars freckle the spaces, most in the employee section off to the right. At the door, I am greeted by a woman wearing a surgical mask and holding a thermometer.
Read More...Orgasms After Cancer: Part I
Understanding the “O” in “OMG!”
As if all the other side effects from cancer treatment aren’t bad enough, survivors can also experience frustrating changes in their sex lives, including newly altered (or absent!) orgasms. Why does this happen, and what can be done?
Read More...The Pain I Feel
The pain I feel won’t go away
It lingers on day after day.
Treatment comes and goes
But the journey continues to have so many lows.
The Unspoken Truths About Life After Cancer
One of the best kept “secrets” of the cancer world is something that is no secret to many of us. What is this secret you may be asking? It’s simple: life “after” cancer really really sucks. If a cancer muggle read that they’d probably shout at me, “At least you’re alive! Be grateful!” Yes, I’m alive, but I often ask myself at what cost? Am I truly living?
Read More...Cancer Isn’t a Battle of Winning or Losing
I was diagnosed with Stage 2B breast cancer at the age of 36 in February 2021. From February of 2021 to July of 2022, I endured a total mastectomy, DIEP flap reconstruction, 4 rounds of the “red devil” chemo, an axillary node dissection resulting in the loss of 20 lymph nodes, 33 rounds of radiation to my left breast, a total hysterectomy, daily doses of anastrozole, multiple recurrence scares, and countless scans.
Read More...A Tribute to my Teammate and Friend
You and me were a team
Found each other when we needed each other most
How are the holidays treating you?
A great opening line
It worked. A new bond formed
When No One’s Around
The COVID-19 pandemic took away a lot of things, but I never thought something else could take away so much more on top of it all. COVID-19 took away celebrating my “dirty 30” birthday with friends and family, and two years of Christmases and New Years. But being diagnosed with cancer DURING a pandemic took away so much more than that. My name is Leigh-Ann, and I am a 31-year-old girl who has a strong love for reading, horses, and hiking. I’m from Barrie, Ontario, Canada, and this is my story.
Read More...A Letter of Love
Dear newer Michelle,
STOP. Pause. Please take the time to really listen to what I have to share. Sit down in a quiet spot, in the sun in the backyard, in your favorite chair. Take a deep breath. Ensure you will be afforded peace and quiet so that you really absorb what I am saying and take self-inventory. This letter is a letter of love that I want you to take to heart.
Read More...The Words We Often Use
The longer I endure the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, the more in depth I contemplate the words we often use to describe it: fight, battle, warrior, etc. I’m truly beginning to see that these are all the WRONG words to use.
Fighting implies that there is a winner and a loser. It also implies that with enough strength, strategy, and mental mindset, that cancer will just go away, and you’ll be healed. Spin it the other way, and if your cancer becomes more aggressive, incurable, or terminal then you lost the battle.
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